A Big Disappointment
It’s somewhat disappointing that Nigeria, the giant of Africa and the most populous black nation in the world, is not in 2015 African Cup of Nations. It is even more disappointing when one considers that the population of some of the countries that qualified for AFCON 2015 is less than that of Lagos alone. So much is this disappointment that many Nigerian football fans have not even bothered to follow or watch AFCON 2015.

Again, On the Road to Failure
By far the biggest disappointment by the Pinnick led NFF thus far has been their failure to name a substantive coach for Super Eagles months after Keshi’s team failed to qualify for AFCON 2015. Though Pinnick’s board has been able to put together a number of friendlies for the Eagles, these games won’t achieve much and don’t really make sense without the team having a substantive coach. In a few months another set of qualifiers for the next AFCON will begin, sadly however, Nigeria is firmly on the same road that led to Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the AFCON in 2012. After the 2010 world cup, Sampson SIasia on the strength of his achievements with the junior teams was by far the fans’ choice to be appointed Super Eagles coach. But the football authorities, as usual, failed to act decisively. They kept dillydallying, and by the time they finally got to appoint Siasia, AFCON qualifiers was already well in process, and in fact Austin Eguavoen had already taken the team to play and lose a crucial qualifying game in Guinea. In the end, Siasia was sacked for failing to qualify for AFCON despite that he did not lose any of the qualifying games he played and was not the one who started the qualifiers. The decision to sack Siasia was a bad one, but that is a different topic all together. Right now the main concern is that NFF, by failing to act decisively in appointing a substantive coach for Super Eagles, seems all set to travel that same road that led to failure to qualify for 2012 AFCON.

NFF, Look at Ghana and Learn
Ghana, once they decided to do away with Appiah as the coach of the Black Stars, moved swiftly to appoint Avram Grant, a former Chelsea coach and a proven tactician as their new coach. I believe in African coaches though and think that Ghana ought to have kept Appiah for the work he did. At the 2014 world cup, Ghana played good football but was rather unfortunate to have been drawn in a very tough group. Even then, they were the only team that drew with Germany; the team that would later demolish Brazil en route winning the world cup. If Ghana was to swap groups with Nigeria, I have no doubt that they would have qualified for the second round quite easily, judging by the quality of football they played. The key learning point for NFF here however is the decisive way which Ghana moved from one coach to another.

Eagles Must Move On and Move Forward
Nigerian Super Eagles cannot afford to continue to dwell on the disappointments of the past; the time to move on is now. In fact the Eagles ought to have moved on already. It’s hardly possible to move on however without coach, so the time to appoint a substantive coach is now. Pinnick and his board must give the Eagles the kind of coach Nigeria deserves; they cannot afford to fail on this, it’s too important.

Beyond Keshi
The place of Keshi in the history of Nigerian football is guaranteed. Aside that he was Eagles’ captain for a long time; he led the team to win 2013 AFCON, qualified for the world cup, and took the team to the second round. However, the overall quality of play of Keshi’s team at the world cup was less than satisfactory. Keshi’s team often played as though there was little or no technical input from the bench. Against Iran at the world cup, the team was poor, clearly lacked creative ideas, hardly created any scoring chances, and of course scored no goals. Keshi’s team played four games at the world cup, lost two and won only one by one goal margin against Bosnia. Had it not been for that controversial one-nil win against Bosnia, Keshi’s team would not have qualified for the second round. Another factor that worked for Keshi was that he was fortunate enough to get favourable draws during much of his reign. Nigeria’s group at the world cup was relatively easy, and even during the qualifiers, Nigeria was drawn against the lowest ranked team that qualified for that final round – Ethiopia. Had Nigeria been drawn against tougher opponents like Ghana, Senegal, Cameroun, or Cote D’ivore, Keshi’s team might not have qualified for the world cup, judging from the quality of football they played. Keshi’s team always found it difficult to score goals or even create clear-cut chances, even against the lowest ranked teams. Even in the AFCON 2013 which he won, Keshi’s team struggled in all the games, except perhaps the 2-1 win against that under-performing Ivorian team and the semi-final win against Mali. During the qualifiers for 2015 AFCON, Keshi’s team were the only team in their group that lost to Sudan and the home loss to Congo was Nigeria’s first home loss in a competitive game in decades. The coach Nigeria needs to take things to a higher level will need to be more technically sound than the Keshi we have seen. But it’s not the end of the road for Keshi; he might yet still get another opportunity, like Siasia now has another opportunity to prove himself again, to handle the Super Eagles in future. Right now however, the Eagles must move on and so must Keshi.

The Coach Nigeria Needs
I have no doubt that the surest bet for Nigeria is a Nigerian coach. The problem with foreign coaches is that they come without truly understanding the Nigerian system; they expect the administration to be flawless, similar to what obtains in Europe. Well, the administrative parts of the Nigerian game are not flawless and will not be anytime soon. Funding will remain a problem and the coaches might not always get their salaries as at when due. The coach Nigeria needs therefore is one who is technically sound but who also understands the Nigerian system and terrain. Fortunately, Nigeria has a class of ex-super eagles’ players who played the game at the highest level and under some of the best coaches in Europe. There is really nothing a foreign coach can do that this class cannot do. I ‘m talking about Sunday Oliseh, Kanu Nwankwo, Jay Jay Okocha, Ben Iroha, Finidi George, even Daniel Amokachi, and several others. The next Super Eagles coach should come from this class.

New Team with New Players
The next Super Eagles coach must look to build a brand new team made up of the best players Nigeria can afford at any point in time. It will be no use trying to recycle Nigeria’s old and tiring players. Nigeria currently has an array of very young and promising players in different clubs across Europe. The next super eagles coach will need to be ready to work hard, get these boys together, and execute a generational shift to Nigeria's young boys. Manu Garba’s boys is the future super eagles. At the last u-17 world cup, these boys played an exciting brand of football, and completely dominated the tournament. Actually, a very talented player is not too young to play for the senior team at 18. Pele began playing for the Brazilian senior team at that age, the great Brazilian Ronaldo came to the world cup in 1994 while still a teenager, and of course we are all witnesses to the exciting football Wenger's young boys play for Arsenal sometimes. This is why Keshi ought to have taken at least three of that world conquering u-17 team to the last world cup – Musa Mohammed, Iheanacho and Alampasu. The exposure would have been good for these boys and that would have been of more value than some of the boys Keshi took to the world cup. Now with Flying Eagles, this set of players has not failed to deliver. The new coach will need to make these boys the crux of the new Super Eagles, and they will deliver, trust me.

A Glorious Future Ahead
The future of Nigerian football sure looks bright, but if only the NFF will get their acts right, first by appointing the right substantive coach for the Super Eagles. Nigeria has an intimidating population with so many talents, and the potential to do well in any football competition is always there. But meanwhile, these elections must come and go. After we are done with the elections, if there is still Nigeria, one day Nigeria will win the world cup, trust me.

Siasia should be the next nigerian coach and he should be allowed to work.

Nice one 0P......

Sunday olise

I must confess that you were so on point more power to your elbow..
I think it's high time to try Sunday oliseh and finidi George as the new coaches..
The present coaches handling our younger teams should be allowed to ddo their jobs, they should continue with the team..
In the year 2018, we should have a team that can conquer the world..

I have heard rumours that NFF are planning to offer Keshi a new contract, I hope this is not true!!


KESHI IS POOR IN TACTICS



Pinnick needs to aware that Nigerians are not that patient, failure to sack keshi means that very soon he will get the sack himself

What a stupid post. Look at Ghana and learn wetin?? My friend go siddon joor.

Oliseh doesn't need much coaching experience to coach Super Eagles; he was captain of the team and also played for several top teams in Europe. Appointing Sunday Oliseh or one of Super Eagles former top players is in line with current trend all over the world. Look at the following:

France - current coach is Didier Claude Deschamps: he captained France to 1998 world cup, same time Oliseh was Eagles' captain
Italy - current coach is Antonio Conte, he played for Italy in 1994 world cup, same as Oliseh played for Nigeria
Germany - former coach Jürgen Klinsmann, Played in 1994 & 1998 world cups same as Oliseh. He was Germany's coach to 2006 world cup (nine years ago!)

thegoodjoehunt3:
First of all, all those screaming Sunday Oliseh should stop it. We can not hand our National team to someone who has not Coached even an age grade competition.

The NFF have also made a mistake by appointing Coach Amodu Shuaibu as the technical director. Has Coach Amodu submitted any write up on what direction our football should take.

It is a pity no contract have been signed. No coach appointed. However if Coach Keshi is going, then Coach Siasia should be given the job. Most National team coaches coach the Olympic team.

I still feel Coach Keshi deserve much praise than he got. He actually was heading in the right direction with the last three games of the Nations cup. The OP missed the fact that we actually lost our final game due to massive injuries. Especially Hope Akpan, Oboabona and Omeruo.

I hope this issue is sorted out and please, If a Coach is brought in or Coach Keshi should remain, the NFF should cease interfering. Coach Amodu Shuaibu can appoint himself coach or leave the coaching job and squad selection to whoever takes the Jon.

FLY EAGLES FLY

Well bros,

the fact is Sunday Oliseh is one of the best options we have right now. He won Olympics gold, played in two world cups as well as for top European teams- Ajax, Borussia Dortmund and Juventus. Playing at the level which he did must have afforded him the opportunity to work with top class coaches as well. He has UEFA coaching license and has been working for the FIFA technical committee; all these means that he is qualified to at least be given the opportunity to handle Super Eagles. Oliseh doesn't necessarily have to go through the junior teams, and Keshi's only outing with a junior team, Flying Eagles was a disaster - he failed to qualify for the world cup.

Giving someone a job is giving the person an opportunity. whether Oliseh will succeed or not, we have to wait and find out, but his pedigree makes him deserving of an opportunity. Someone must get the opportunity to be able to prove himself. Some of the other people you mentioned - Ugbade, Garba - did not enjoy the kind of playing career Oliseh had, and never playing in the world cup. For Siasia, some would argue that he has already had his opportunity with the Eagles, same with Amokachi who has been working with Keshi.

Oliseh, of course, is not the only Nigerian coach in that class who is qualified is to be given the opportunity to handle the Eagles but he is one of our best options.

To renew Keshi's contract is a VERY BAD CHOICE. We ought to be looking for a way to take things to a higher level, and Keshi's tactical and technical inadequacies are all too obvious. Apart from the 2013 AFCON semi-final against Mali, I don't seem to be able to remember any game where Keshi's Eagles scored more that two goals even against the lowest possible teams. The group Keshi's team played in during the last AFCON qualifiers was a relatively easy group, but Keshi's team apart from losing at home to Congo were the only team in that group that lost to lowly Sudan!

thegoodjoehunt3:
My guy you bare funny.

Do you think these guys became coaches because they were captains? They became national team coaches because they had promising coaching careers.

Antonio Conte * Teams Managed
2006 Arezzo
2007 Arezzo
2007–2009 Bari
2009–2010 Atalanta
2010–2011 Siena
2011–2014 Juventus
2014– Italy

Didier Deschamps * Teams Managed
2001–2005 Monaco
2006–2007 Juventus
2009–2012 Marseille
2012– France

Jurgen Klinsmann is the only person who did not manage a side before taken over but his wealth of experience working with Coaches helped prepare him for the job.
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Jürgen began preparing for coaching/managing while he was a player. His club experiences in the top leagues of Germany, Italy, France, and England included learning from successful managers such as Arsene Wenger, Giovanni Trappatoni, Otto Rehhagel, Ossie Ardiles, Gerry Francis, Arie Haan and Cesar Luis Menotti; competing within and against tactical systems that emphasized different styles of play; dealing with the pressures of knock out and championship matches; working with players from numerous countries; and becoming fluent in English, Italian, and French in addition to his native German.

Plus, Jürgen competed in over 100 national team matches for Germany all around the world while playing for 2 renowned managers, Franz Beckenbauer and Berti Vogts, and winning both the UEFA European Championship and the FIFA World Cup

http://www.klinsmann.com/the-coach/
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You can not use these guys as reasons why Oliseh deserves to Coach our team.

Look at What Coach Emmanuel Amunike is doing with the U17. Look at Coach Manu Garba, Coach Samson Siasia, Coach Ndukka Ugbade. These men deserved to be picked before Oliseh.

If Oliseh is good, he should take one of the young sides and show us what he can do.

thegoodjoehunt3:
Sunday Oliseh should take an age grade team or any club side, whether in Europe or in Africa and let us judge him. Others are making their mark and proving their coaching capabilities.

Until then, he is not an option.

Is Oliseh an option now?